Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. competes with private
equity firms in acquiring assets, Blitzer, 41, told reporters on
the sidelines of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital
Association’s annual conference in London today.

He “has an agenda as relates to buying assets and he’s
running around competing with us, so I’d take a little bit of a
grain of salt,” Blitzer said. “That said, Buffett is Buffett.
He’s obviously amazing, but he’s got his own agenda which at
least one should be aware of.”

Buffett, chairman of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, said
last month he avoids acquiring companies from LBO firms because
they focus on “exit strategy” and “don’t love the business.”
The 80-year-old also said he’d never acquired a company out of
private-equity ownership.

Leveraged buyout firms like Blackstone, the world’s
largest, pool money from investors to take over companies,
financing the purchases mostly with debt, with the intention of
selling them within five years for a profit. New York-based
Blackstone was founded in 1985 by former Lehman Brothers
executives Stephen Schwarzman and Peter Peterson.

Buffett outbid Blackstone when he acquired underwear maker
Fruit of the Loom Inc. out of bankruptcy in 2002. He didn’t
immediately respond to a request for comment e-mailed to his
assistant, Carrie Kizer.

Blitzer, who’s worked at Blackstone since 1991 and started
the firm’s private equity unit in Europe, also told the
conference British investors are too skeptical about buying
companies being sold by private equity firms in initial public
offerings.

“There is an incredible amount of emotion and
misinformation out there in the marketplace,” he said.
“Private equity-backed IPOs perform in-line or better than all
other IPOs.”